Californian State University anthropologist Wesley Niewoehner and colleagues took an epoxy cast of the fossilized remains of a Neanderthal thumb and forefinger and scanned the image into a computer. Software then converted the image into a 3-D simulation of how these digits would move. Niewoehner's program used a conservative estimate of the size and mobility of the muscles and ligaments, but even so the result showed Neanderthals to be remarkably dexterous.

    Some paleontologists have suggested the Neanderthals could not even place the tips of their forefinger and thumb together, mainly because these digits were too short and too close together. But Niewoehner's simulation shows this is not the case at all.

    "We find that these digits could make tip-to-tip contact and conclude that manual dexterity in Neanderthals was probably not significantly different from that of modern humans," he writes.

    The finding is important because it shows Neanderthals could do far more than simply wield blunt objects. It backs evidence, found at a site in France in 1979, that implies Neanderthals in the Upper Paleolithic age, around 36,000 years ago, were able to make advanced stone tools of the kind used by their human rivals.

    Whatever caused the Neanderthals' demise remains a mystery. But it "cannot be attributed to any physical inability to use or manufacture" these tools, says the study published in Nature.

    The first Neanderthal was recognized in 1856, at a site in Germany's Neander Valley, from which the species' name derives. In 1886, the finding of two nearly complete Neanderthal skeletons threw up evidence that they were a separate type of human rather than a cousin of Homo sapiens. AFP

 

 

WORMY ORIGIN

BEIJING

Chinese scientists believe fossilized ancient worms found in southwestern Yunnan province support a theory that man ultimately descended from worms and represent the "first step" in a long evolutionary process that eventually led to the human species.

    The search should go on for more fossil evidence to test the theory in line with clues provided by modern zoological information, said Shu Degan, a professor at the Northwest China University. "There is still a long way to go before we can determine a detailed chronology of the evolutionary process of vertebrates," Shu said. AFP

 

 

SEXED-UP WORMS

KIEV, Ukraine

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster has radically changed the lives of worms in the region, which now enjoy more sex.

    Scientists in Sebastopol have compared the way worms reproduce around Chernobyl, where radioactivity levels in the soil are 100 times higher than normal, with their cousins elsewhere. Nearly a quarter of irradiated worms are seeking out partners to reproduce sexually rather than asexually, against five percent in less affected areas, the research showed.

    This is because sexual reproduction allows the worms to transmit their most radioactivity-resistant genes to their offspring, giving them the most chances of adapting to their new environment. "They have a better chance of survival," according to biologist Guennady Polikarpov. AFP